Payment systems and methods

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are payment systems and methods.

This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Application Ser. No. 61/370,355 filed Aug. 3, 2010 for PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to payment systems and methods and, more particularly, to systems and methods of compensating health care providers.

2. Description of Related Art

The increasing cost of health insurance induces insurers to seek new ways to contain increases in healthcare costs. A primary method to achieve this is through various methods of cost shifting from the insurer to patients. By having patients be responsible for an increasing portion of their healthcare spending, the insurers believe that patients will become smarter consumers of healthcare and help to reduce the overall costs. As a result, the proportion of payments from the patient to the physician, as opposed to from the insurer to the physician, increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to facilitate collection of payments, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity effectively sends a payment request message to an insurance company, the payment request message being in a payment request format; receives a remittance advice message from the insurance company, the remittance advice message being in a remittance advice forma. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the payment request format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the remittance advice format, such that a content of the message in the remittance advice format depends on an insurance contract and a payment contract with the first entity. The method comprises electronically receiving a payment request message from the medical office, the payment request message being in a payment request format; responsive to the message received in the receiving step, electronically constructing a remittance advice message in the remittance advice format, such that a content of the message in the remittance advice format depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after a medical service is performed; and electronically sending the remittance advice message to the medical office, to cause a computerized payment system of the medical office to behave as if the message came from an insurance company.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein he first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract. The method comprises the steps of electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, electronically constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract. The system comprises circuitry configured to electronically receive a message, from the first entity, in the second format and, responsive to the received message, electronically construct a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract. The system comprises means for electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and means, responsive to the message received by the receiving means, for electronically constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity controlling execution of a first computer instruction, the first computer acting to send a message to the second entity, the message including a code identifying a medical service for a patient, and a second computer instruction, the second computer instruction acting to receive a message in reply to the message sent by the first computer instruction. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services. The method comprises receiving a first message from the first computer instruction; responsive to the receiving step, sending a second message to the second computer instruction, the second message including the code identifying the medical service for the patient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

References are made to the following text taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a system 1 in accordance with a first system exemplifying an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a sequence of messages in system 1, involving a person who has purchased medical insurance.

FIG. 3 is an image displayed on an output screen.

FIG. 4 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 shows another sequence of messages in system 1, involving the person shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 14 shows an output screen image for entering a claim for payment for medical services rendered.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart describing a process shown in FIG. 13.

FIG. 16 shows a report detailing payments received from various payers.

FIGS. 17A and 17B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIGS. 19A and 19B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIGS. 21A and 21B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing circuitry in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing circuitry in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a data structure in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 26 is a diagram for describing a parsing operation

FIG. 27 is another diagram for describing the parsing process.

FIG. 28 is a flow chart for describing the parsing process.

FIG. 29 is another diagram for describing the parsing process.

FIG. 30 is another diagram for describing the parsing process.

FIG. 31 is a flow chart for describing a step of the parsing process in more detail.

FIG. 32 shows a sequence of messages in system 1′

FIG. 33 shows another sequence of messages in system 1′, involving the person shown in FIG. 32.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments at a time after to that shown in FIG. 34.

FIG. 36 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments at a time after to that shown in FIG. 35.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing circuitry in an exemplary system.

FIG. 39 shows a sequence of messages in system 1′.

The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and which constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, explain the principles of the invention, and additional advantages thereof. Certain drawings are not necessarily to scale, and certain features may be shown larger than relative actual size to facilitate a more clear description of those features. Throughout the drawings, corresponding elements are labeled with corresponding reference numbers.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS First Exemplary System

FIG. 1 shows system 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Person 10 has a subscriber relationship with insurance company 21, meaning that person 10 has a contract with insurance company 21, the contract providing that person 10 pay insurance company 21 before medical cost accrue. Insurance company 21 has an obligation to pay for medical costs as they accrue, provided certain conditions are satisfied.

Person 10 has a dependent relationship with insurance company 25, meaning that person 10's spouse has a contract with insurance company 25 in which person 10 is covered as a dependent, the contract providing that person 10's spouse pay insurance company 25 before medical cost accrue. Insurance company 25 has an obligation to pay for medical costs as they accrue, provided certain conditions are satisfied.

Person 10 has a card holder relationship with credit card company 28, meaning that credit card company 28 may pay a cost when the cost accrues and person 10 is then obligated to compensate credit card company and, under certain conditions, pay interest.

Credit card company 28 is a card-issuing bank, an organization that issues credit cards to consumers. Credit card company 28 bills consumers for repayment and bears the risk that an issued card is used fraudulently. Credit card company 28 is a member of an association of card-issuing banks that participate in a network such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc. The association sets transaction terms for merchants and card-issuing banks.

Person 10 visits medical office 301 (“Good Life Medical Clinic”) and receives a medical service, such as an office visit with a blood test or antibiotic injection. Person 10 sees doctor 375. At appointment checkout, person 10 sees office administrator 380. Medical office 301 thus generates a charge.

In order to collect payment from payment system 400, medical office 301 sets up payment system 400 as a standard ‘payer’ in the medical office practice management system (PMS) such that payment system 400 emulates an insurance company. For person 10, medical office 301 sets up payment system 400 as a tertiary payer, or the payer of last resort.

For person 10, medical office 301 sends an ANSI ASC X12N 837 Health Care claims (837) transaction (HIPAA 837 transaction) to person 10's primary insurer, insurance company 21.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction from medical office 301, insurance company 21 sends a X12N 835 Health Care Claims Payment Advice transaction (HIPAA 835 transaction) that explains an adjudication ruling based on a contract between medical office 301 and insurance company 21, and a contract between person 10 and insurance company 21 (person 10's eligibility and benefits). The HIPAA 835 transaction provides medical office 301 remittance advice corresponding to the received 837 transaction, along with a detailed breakdown of payment and adjustments to the billed amount. The HIPAA 835 transaction includes amount, payee, payer, and payment method. The HIPAA 835 transaction also includes Explanation of Benefits information related to adjudicated claims and services.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 835 transaction from insurance company 21, medical office 301 sends a HIPAA 837 transaction that includes coordination of benefits information to the next payer assigned to person 10, insurance company 25.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction from medical office 301, insurance company 25 sends a HIPAA 835 transaction that explains an adjudication ruling based on a contract between medical office 301 and insurance company 25, and a contract between person 10 and insurance company 25 (person 10's eligibility and benefits) and the resulting adjudication by the primary insurance company 21.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 835 transaction from insurance company 25, medical office 301 sends a HIPAA 837 transaction that includes coordination of benefits information to the next payer assigned to person 10, payment system 400, with all the previous payer's information in the coordination of benefits segments of the transaction.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction, payment system 400 then uses the patient outstanding balance information within the HIPAA 837 transaction to either:

1) Charge person 10's credit card for the outstanding balance, or

2) Send a detailed bill to the person 10 via email to explain the outstanding balance and allow person 10 to click on a ‘Pay Now’ button to have the outstanding amount charged to their existing credit card within payment system 400.

If payment system 400 is successful in collecting the outstanding charges, the services within the HIPAA 837 transaction are deemed to be paid. If the charges are declined by the credit card issuing bank then the services are deemed to be denied as if the patient is ineligible. If the person 10 does not press the ‘Pay Now’ button then the services are deemed to be denied as the charges could not be authorized for collection. In response to the services being denied, the medical office may bill person 10 for a non-discounted amount corresponding to the denied service as defined in the 835 response, depending on insurance company contractual provisions.

On a periodic basis, payment system 400 processes all the HIPAA 837 transactions for a specific medical office in a settlement process. During settlement payment system 400 determines if the transactions have been matched and payment status determined, it will also determine whether enough time has passed for the payments collected to have been deposited into the payment collection vendors merchant account. If these conditions are met, payment collection 400 aggregates all the payments for medical office 301 since the last settlement cycle and constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction to send to the medical office 301 PMS. The HIPAA 835 transaction is then submitted to medical office 301 either directly or via a clearing house, and either a check or an EFT payment is provided to the medical office as payment for the services included in the HIPAA 835.

If the medical office PMS system is able to process electronic 835 transactions automatically, the medical office PMS system will accept the HIPAA 835 transaction from payment system 400 and auto-post it into the patient's account. Otherwise, the medical office staff manually posts the transactions just as for the 835 transactions from other payers.

In summary, payment system 400 is a patient collection system having an interface to a conventional HIPAA compliant medical office, or clearinghouse, acting as a submitter. The interface processes HIPAA transaction messages, to emulate the behavior of an insurance company, but in the pursuit of managing and collecting patient liability for medical services that is not covered by insurance.

Payment system 400 emulates the responses of an insurer such that the practice management system processes the response accordingly. The specific response codes required may differ between practice management systems, but the principle of emulating a response from an insurance company that invokes the correct processing in the practice management system to show the patient as fully paid up or with an outstanding balance is universal.

Thus, there is no change to the legacy software instructions in the submitter; the submitter need only register payment system 400 as a payer. In the case of a patient not relying on insurance to pay the medical office, the registration is that of a primary payer. A person may have insurance but may not be relying on it to pay a certain service with a certain medical office.

In the case of a patient relying on insurance, the registration is that of a secondary payer, so that payment system 400 eventually receives a claim corresponding to patient responsibility. The patient responsibility could be for a co-payment, deductible, co-insurance or a non-covered service, for example.

More Detailed Description of the First Exemplary System

Payment system 400 and insurance company 21 are non-affiliated, meaning that they are not affiliates with respect to each other. In this patent application, concerns are affiliates of each other when one concern controls or has the power to control the other, or a third party or parties controls or has the power to control both. Power to control is described in Section 121 of the U.S. regulations of the Small Business Administration.

Payment system 400 and insurance company 25 are non-affiliated.

Payment system 400 and medical office 301 are non-affiliated.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing sequences of messages and materials exchanged between people, data, and electronic processors in system 1. In FIG. 2, and in each of the other sequence diagrams in this patent application, each of the rectangles on a dashed line is a process invoked in response to a received message. The process could be facilitated, enabled, or carried out, by a computer executing computer instructions to effect a function of the process.

Person 10 registers, or opens an account, with credit card company 28. (message 1010) This act of opening an account may be performed by person 10 by filling out a form provided online by credit card company 28, mailing a paper form to credit card company 28, or speaking on the telephone with a person in credit card company 28 who collects relevant information. An account record now created in credit card company 28 for person 10 includes a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, a security code (CVV) and a card holder name. Credit card company 28 returns a credit card number, expiry date and security code to person 10 (message 1012). Credit card company 28 may also return a physical, plastic, credit card.

Subsequently, person 10 registers, or opens an account, with payment system 400. (message 1015) This act of opening an account may be performed by person 10 or office administrator 380 on their behalf by filling out a form provided online by payment system 400, mailing a paper form to payment system 400, or speaking on the telephone with a person in payment system 400 or office administrator 380 who collects relevant information. An account record now created in payment system 400 for person 10 includes the credit card account number received from credit card company 28, a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, and a card holder name. CVV is collected but not stored. Payment system 400 returns the account information (equivalent to a subscriber or member id provided by an insurance company) to person 10 (message 1020) or the office administrator 380.

Payment system 400 stores the credit card information in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v 1.2 or later, based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptography technology.

Person 10 purchases an insurance contract from insurance company 21, by supplying information and transferring funds to insurance company 21. (message 1025). Insurance company 21 informs person 10 of insurance policy information (such as the group number and member id) for person 10. (message 1030).

The spouse of person 10 purchases an insurance contract from insurance company 25, by supplying information and transferring funds to insurance company 25. (message 1035). Insurance company 25 informs the spouse of person 10 of insurance policy information (such as the group number and member id) for person 10. (message 1040). Person 10 is thus a dependent of the spouse of person 10, in the contract with insurance company 25.

Person 10 informs medical office 301 of the policy information received from insurance company 21, the policy information received from insurance company 25, and the account information received from payment system 400. (message 1045), or the office administrator 380 may look up this information in payment system 400.

In response to receiving message 1045, medical office 301 invokes process 305. Process 305 includes setting up a payer list for person 10 (“John Smith”) in database 378.

FIG. 3 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing an empty payer list for person 10.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 3. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add insurance company 21 (“Acme Insurance”) as a primary payer for person 10.

FIG. 6 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance” in the payer list for person 10.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 6. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add insurance company 25 (“Beta Insurance”) company as a secondary payer for person 10.

FIG. 9 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance” and “Beta Insurance” in the payer list for person 10.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 9. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add payment system 400 (“Z Payer”) company as a tertiary payer for person 10.

FIG. 12 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance”, “Beta Insurance” and “Z Payer” in the payer list for person 10. FIG. 25 shows a memory data structure, including payer list 382, corresponding to the image in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 shows a process invoked when person 10 visits medical office 301 for an appointment and receives a medical service. An appointment 1050 to the medical office 301 produces a charge. As shown in FIG. 14, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to enter the charge, thereby invoking computer process 310, which sends a HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1055) to insurance company 21. Subsequently, insurance company 21 adjudicates (determines) the payment obligation of insurance company 21 and patient 10. Subsequently, insurance company 21 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060) containing an adjudicated result generated by insurance company 21. Subsequently, insurance company 21 sends the HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060) to medical office 301. Insurance company 21 sends payment, corresponding to insurance company 21 payment obligation based on the adjudicated result generated by insurance company 21, to medical office 301.

Responsive to receiving message 1060, medical office 301 invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to insurance company 25 (message 1065) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060).

Subsequently, insurance company 25 adjudicates (determines) the payment obligation of insurance company 25. Subsequently, insurance company 25 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070) containing an adjudicated result generated by insurance company 25. Subsequently, insurance company 25 sends the HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070) to medical office 301. Insurance company 25 sends payment, corresponding to insurance company 25 payment obligation based on the adjudicated result generated by insurance company 25, to medical office 301.

Responsive to receiving message 1070, medical office 301 invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400 (message 1075) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070).

Responsive to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1075), payment system 400 invokes computer process 410, determines the patient's outstanding responsibility and sends a charge request (message 1080) for that amount to credit card company 28. Credit card company 28 determines whether to accept the charge and sends the result of the determination (message 1085) to payment system 400.

Responsive to receiving message 1085, payment system 400 constructs and sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1090) based on the message received from credit card company 28 (message 1085).

Central processing unity (CPU) 362 (FIG. 24) executes program 314 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 315. Program 314 includes a programming construct that waits for and dispatches messages received from computer networks 30. When the programming construct receives a HIPAA message, the programming construct calls the relevant program (“dispatches the message”), as shown in steps 10, 15, and 20 of FIG. 15.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing process 315. CPU 362 determines whether a message, received via networks 30, is a HIPAA 835 transaction (step 5). If the received message is a HIPAA 835 transaction, CPU 362 determines whether ((the CLP05 element value is not present or (FIG. 18) is equal to zero) and (that there are no patient responsibility (PR) adjustments in the service adjustment segment (CAS)))

(step 10). If the patient responsibility element is not zero, meaning that costs have not been fully paid, CPU 362 determines whether there are any payers remaining in payer list 382. (Step 15). If there are payers remaining in payer list 382, CPU 352 constructs a HIPAA 837 transaction with the information in the 835 response as coordination of benefits information within the HIPAA 837 transaction. CPU 362 sends the HIPAA 837 transaction to the next payer, via network interface hardware 368 and networks 30. (Step 20).

The paid amount and the billed amount typically do not match. In general the paid amount is lower than the billed amount and then a series of adjustments are noted that balance it out.

As shown in FIG. 16, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to generate a report which, in this case, shows that the patient responsibility for person 10 is 0, corresponding to a YES exit from step 10 shown in FIG. 15.

In summary, system 1 employs existing standard insurance based electronic transactions (HIPAA transactions) to manage the collection and payment of the patient portion of medical bills. For example, system 1 generates a standard 837 EDI transaction to allow a practice management system in a medical office to send a request for payment of patient collections, or a request to collect outstanding patient collections. Payment system 400 then generates a standard 835 EDI to report whether the collection was made and how much was collected. Since system 1 employs standard transactions the payment system and the medical office's practice management system are able to interact without any specialized IT changes.

FIGS. 17A and 18B show message 1055 (FIG. 13) in more detail. Message 1055 includes an element CLM02 (“Billed Amount for Claim”) having the value $217.53. The insurer adjusts this amount to the allowed amount which is the negotiated rate between the insurer and the medical office. The billed amount is the same regardless of who the medical office sends the claim to and is sometimes referred to as the retail amount.

FIG. 18 shows message 1060 in more detail. Message 1060 includes an element CLP04 (“Claim Payment Amount”) having the value $151.43, which is the amount that insurance company 21 (“Acme Insurance”) is paying on the claim. Message 1060 also include information about how the insurance company has adjusted the claim from the billed amount to the paid amount, including element CAS03 (“Contractual Obligations”) ($46.10) and element CAS03 (“Patient Responsibility”) ($20.00).

Responsive to receiving message 1060, CPU 362 executes program 314, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to insurance company 25 (message 1065) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060).

FIGS. 19A and 19B show message 1065 in more detail. Message 1065 retains that CLM02 element “Billed Amount for Claim” having the value $217.53, but details out the allowed amount that can be paid out on this claim (LOOP 2320 AMT COB Allowed Amt=$171.43), what has already been paid out (LOOP ID 2430 SVD02 Service Line Paid Amt=$151.43) and the outstanding patient responsibility amount (LOOP ID 2430 CAS03 Patient Responsibility=$20.00). Insurance company 25 uses this information together with their contract with patient 10 to determine if they should pay out any of the outstanding patient responsibility.

FIG. 20 shows message 1070 in more detail. Message 1070 includes an element CLP04 having the value $10.00, which is the amount that insurance company 25 (“Beta Insurance”) is paying on the claim.

Responsive to receiving message 1070, CPU 362 executes program 314, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400 (message 1075) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070).

FIGS. 21A and 21B show message 1075 in more detail. Message 1075 includes an element “Billed Charges for Claim” having the value $217.53, and includes all the payments, adjustments and patient responsibilities determined by insurance company 21 and 25.

FIGS. 21A and 21B are relatively abstract, compared to actual text of message 1075 shown in FIG. 26 below.

FIG. 22 shows message 1090 in more detail. Message 1090 includes an element CLP04 having the value $9.00, which is the amount that payment system 400 (“Z Payment Company”) collected from person 10's credit card, via credit card company 28 minus the fee charged by Z Payment Company for collection. In other words, person 10's credit card was charged $10.00, Z Payment Company retained a $1.00 fee for collecting this charge and so the amount paid to Good Life Medical Clinic is $9.00.

Responsive to receiving message 1090, CPU 362 executes program 314, to determine that the claim has been paid in full.

FIG. 23 shows another aspect of payment system 400. A computer system includes central processing unit (CPU) 462, random access memory 464, disk memory 466 for storing programs and data, and network interface hardware 468.

CPU 462 executes programs stored in memory 464, to process received messages, and to generate and send messages from payment system 400.

Database 478 is stored on magnetic disk 466, and portions of database 478 are read into memory 464 as needed.

CPU 462 executes program 409 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 410.

In summary, medical office 301 activates circuitry that receives a message in a HIPAA 835 format message including element CLP05. Element CLP05 is a type of field.

Medical office 301 also activates circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message a HIPAA 837 format message depending a content of the CLP05 element of a message received by the circuitry described in the previous paragraph. The HIPAA 837 message includes a code identifying a medical service for a patient.

Insurance company 21 receives a HIPAA 837 message from medical office 301 and, in response, constructs a HIPAA 835 format message having a CLP05 element having a content depending on an insurance contract.

Payment system 400 receives a HIPAA 837 format message from medical office 301 and, in response, constructs a HIPAA 835 format message having a CLP05 element having a content depending on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.

FIG. 24 shows another aspect of medical office 301. An administrator station includes an IBM compatible PC having CPU 362, random access memory 364, disk memory 366 for storing programs and data, and network interface hardware 368. The administrator station also includes a user interface having a display 370 a keyboard input device 374 and a mouse input device 372.

Processor 362 executes programs 376 and program 314 stored in memory 364, to generate and send messages from medical office 301.

Database 378 is stored on magnetic disk 366, and portions of database 378 are read into memory 364 as needed.

FIG. 25 shows database 378 in more detail. Database 378 includes patient data structure 380, which may be conceptualized as a list of patients. Each entry in patient list 380 includes a reference to a payer list, such as payer list 382 for person 10 (John Smith), payer list 386 for Roger Ramirez, or payer list 388 for John Adams.

In the data structures shown in the Figures, lines represent a reference, such as a pointer, between one element and another. These references are not necessarily direct memory address pointers. Instead, more generally, each reference is a data entity, stored in association with one (referencing) element, that enables a processor to find a related (referenced) element. To physically address the referenced element, the processor may subject the reference to various translations or mappings. In the case of the reference to payer list 382, the reference may be simply a list of the names, or identification codes, of the 3 payers.

Each entry in a payer list, such as payer list 382, includes connectivity information allowing communication through networks 30. The connectivity information may be a payer id assigned by a clearinghouse, a U.S. federal tax ID, or some other type of national ID.

From an EDI perspective of system 400, one can either directly connect to all the participating providers, or one can rely on a clearing house such as an Emdeon clearinghouse. In the later case, system 400 receives 837s from the clearinghouse that are directed to the payer ID of system 400 (which is given to the providers about so they can set up payment system 400 in their respective PMSs), and system 400 sends 835s to the clearinghouse, which uses a tax id and/or the national provider id to route the transaction to the right provider. The clearinghouse therefore works as a kind of post office that gets the right transactions to the right recipients in the correct format.

Instead of operating via a clearinghouse, each entry in payer list 382 may include a Universal Resource Locator (URL), such as http://www.metlife.com:234, corresponding to a payer. This could also be FTP or other EDI communications networks such as AS/2

In summary, system 1 includes insurance company 25, which is a type of entity that provides insurance services. These services involve a contract whereby, for specified consideration, insurance company 25 undertakes to compensate others for costs relating to a particular subject as a result of the occurrence of designated events, such as prescribed medical procedures.

Medical office 301 controls execution of computer instruction 311 (FIG. 24), which acts to send message 1065 (FIG. 13) to insurance company 25, message 1065 including data (FIG. 19B, element SV1) encoding a medical service for a person.

Medical office 301 controls execution of computer instruction 312 (FIG. 24), which acts to receive message 1070 (FIG. 13) in reply to message 1065.

A CPU 462 (FIG. 23) executes computer instructions 409 to effect a process 405 (FIG. 2) for operating with medical office 301, the process comprises the step of receiving a message, such as message 1075, from computer instruction 311.

Responsive to the receiving step, CPU 462 and computer instructions 409 send messages, such as message 1090 (FIG. 13), to computer instruction 312. Message 1090 encodes a monetary amount (FIG. 22, filed CLP05) collectable from the person in response to a service performed by medical office 301.

FIG. 26 is a diagram describing an aspect of program 409. Program 409 parses the HIPAA 837 transaction in message 1075 (FIG. 13) by recognizing certain tags and delimiters. Program 409 increments text pointer 407 as parsing progresses. At the time depicted in FIG. 26, program 409 is parsing the text of an N4 element, containing postal address information for payment system 400.

At the time depicted in FIG. 26, program 409 has recognized the character that delimits segments (“˜”).

At the time depicted in FIG. 27, program 409 is in the process of recognizing a tag identifying a segment. At the time depicted in FIG. 27, the token candidate is “C”.

FIG. 28 is a flow chart describing another aspect of program 409.

Program 409 compares the current token candidate to “CLM” (step 120). If the current token candidate is not equal to “CLM”, program 409 compares the current token candidate to “EQ” (step 125). Eventually, program 409 increments text pointer 407 so that text pointer 407 points to the next character in the HIPAA 837 transaction, and reads the next character, so that the current token candidate includes the next character. (See step 135).

At the time depicted in FIG. 29, the token candidate is “CL”.

At the time depicted in FIG. 30, the token candidate is “CLM”.

If step 120 detects the “CLM” textual tag, program 409 parses the remainder of CLM segment. (step 123), which has the format CLM[Claim Submit Identifier (CLM01)][Monetary Amount (CLM02)] . . . .

Program 409 includes additional logic that recognizes tags and delimiters in addition to that represented by the boxes shown in FIG. 28. This additional logic is represented by the dashed line entering step 115.

FIG. 31 is a flow chart describing step 123 of FIG. 28 in more detail. Program 409 sets the token candidate to null and reads in the next character (step 150). If the token candidate is “*”, program 409 sets the token candidate to null and reads the next character (step 160). If at step 155 the token candidate is not “*”, error processing is performed, as represented by the NO exit path out of step 155 because, according to the HIPAA 837 transaction protocol, the next character should be “*”.

There are numerous ways a person of skill in the art may implement the above-described parsing function of program 409. For example, the person could write a subprogram, using a higher level language for example, to carry out the parsing function of program 409. Alternatively, the person could invoke an off the shelf, commercially available, tool, such as the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) parser Trading Partner from Emanio Corporation, ProEDI, or Softshare. These products enable passing of EDI transactions from trading partners and translating into other data structures such as database tables, flat files, XML files, etc. that are usually actionable by an application.

In particular Trading Partner can parse the transaction and then another Emanio product, called Unite!, can map the parsed data into database commands that load the data into a database. To generate the HIPAA 835 transaction, the software takes information in the database and translates the information into a HIPAA 835 transaction that is sent to the provider.

Second Exemplary System

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing sequences of messages and materials exchanged between people, data, and electronic processors in system 1′ in accordance with a second exemplary system. System 1′ has all of the features of the system 1, described in connection with FIG. 1, and has the additional features described below.

Person 12 is self-paying, meaning that person 12 is not relying on a health insurance policy to pay for the medical service cited in the example. Person 12 could be self-paying because, for example, person 12 has no medical insurance. Alternately, person 12 could be self paying because, for example, medical office 301 is not contracted with the insurance carrier of person 12, such that the medical office 301 is out of network.

Person 12 registers, or opens an account, with credit card company 28. (message 2010). An account record now created in credit card company 28 for person 12 includes a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, and a card holder name. Credit card company 28 returns a credit card number, expiry date, and possibly a security code to person 12 (message 2012). Credit card company 28 may also return a physical, plastic, credit card.

Person 12 informs medical office 301′ of the account number received from credit card company 28. (message 2045).

Subsequently, medical office 301′ registers, or opens an account for person 12, in payment system 400′ (message 2015). Message 2015 includes the credit card number of person 12 received from credit card company 28. An account record now created in payment system 400′ for person 12 includes the credit card number received from credit card company 28 (stored in a PCI complaint manner), and a mailing address. Payment system 400′ returns an account number to medical office 301′. (message 2020).

FIG. 33 shows a process wherein self-paying person 12 requests an appointment with medical office 301′. (appointment scheduling 2050).

Responsive to the request from person 12, staff in medical office 301′ invokes computer program 317 (FIG. 24) to send a message 2075 to payment system 400′. Message 2075 includes information regarding the appointment, such as the appointment date, the patient name and ID and subscriber name and ID and expected services to be performed.

Responsive to receiving message 2075, payment system 400′ generates message 2090, thereby informing medical office 301′ regarding whether person 12 is set up in system 400′ with a valid payment method (i.e. are they eligible based on the information system 400′ has at present).

If person 12 is already set up in payment system 400′ and the payment card account of person 12 is valid, then payment system 400′ will automatically set up an appointment record for person 12 based on the information in message 2075. The appointment record includes the amount due at the time of service, based on the services known at that time. The appointment record may include a discounted cost of the expected services.

FIG. 34 shows appointment list 480 in payment system 400′ before payment system 400′ receives the message 2075.

If person 12 is already set up in payment system 400′ and the payment card account of person 12 is valid, payment system 400′ preauthorizes charges that are known to have to be collected at time of service, against the person 12's credit card prior to the appointment. (message 2080 and 2085).

FIG. 35 shows appointment list 480 in payment system 400′ after payment system 400′ receives the message 2075, in the case where person 12 is already set up in payment system 400′ and the payment card account of person 12 is valid.

If person 12 is not already set up in payment system 400′ or the payment card account of person 12 is not valid, then payment system 400′ sends an email person 12, enabling person 12 to either register or update their payment card prior to the appointment with medical office 301′.

Person 12 visits medical office 301′ for the scheduled appointment, and receives a medical service. (appointment 2100).

Once the appointment is complete, staff of medical office 301′ adds any additional services to the service list, and invokes a program to send the service list to payment system 400′. (message 2105). In response to receiving message 2105, payment system 400′ collects originally scheduled and additional services from the credit card provided by the patient. Payment system 400′ first collects the preauthorized amount (messages 2110 and 2115), and then collects any amount for additional services (message 2120 and 2125).

If charges cannot be collected the medical office staff are encouraged to collect directly from the patient, or bill them later but at the non-discounted rate.

At this point, payment system 400′ has collected either all or part of the person 12's responsibility for the appointment and is ready to pay medical office 301′ the collected funds.

Medical office 301′ eventually sends a HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1075) to payment system 400′.

FIG. 36 shows appointment list 480 at the time that payment system 400′ receives the message 1075. In contrast to FIG. 34, FIG. 36 shows appointments added for other people since creation of the appointment record for person 10 (John Smith). FIG. 36 also reflects appointment records that have been removed since the creation of the appointment record for John Smith.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing process 425 (FIG. 33). CPU 462 selects the first appointment record in appointment list 480 (step 5). CPU 462 determines whether the current appointment record matches the HIPAA 837 transaction in message 1075 (step 10). If the appointment record does match the HIPAA 837 transaction, CPU 462 conditionally charges the payment card account (step 15).

If the current appointment record does not match the HIPAA 837 transaction, CPU 462 determines whether there are appointment records remaining in appointment list 480. (step 20). If there are appointment records remaining in appointment list 480, CPU 462 selects the next appointment record (step 25) and resumes processing at step 10.

If step 20 determines there are no appointment records remaining in appointment list 480, CPU 462 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction to indicate that payment is denied.

Step 10 includes checking whether the appointment record currently under consideration is unpaid, determining whether the HIPAA 837 transaction states that payment system 400′ is the payer associated with the transaction, determining whether the provider who rendered the services is the provider for the appointment, and determining whether the subscriber and patient in the 837 transaction are the account holder and patient in payment system 400′.

Step 10 also includes searching for services in the HIPAA 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record. Two services correspond if they have the same service code. Alternatively, two services correspond if they are sufficiently similar. For example, in system 400′ the service having service code 99213 may correspond to the service having service code 99214.

Step 15 includes determining if payment was collected. If payment was collected, the service is deemed to be paid at a discounted fee set up by medical office 301 in the payment system 400′. If system 400′ finds a service in the HIPAA 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, and the charges were declined by person 12's credit card issuing bank, the charges may be attempted again and if the charges are still declined then the service is deemed to be denied as if person 12 was not eligible at the time of service and the patient responsibly is set to a non-discounted fee set up in payment system 400′.

If step 10 does not find a service in the HIPAA 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, then there is no match, and processing proceeds to step 20.

If the service is deemed to be paid, then the transaction fee related to using the payment system 400′ is set as an adjustment to the collected funds.

Step 15 includes conditionally using the patient outstanding balance information within the HIPAA 837 transaction to either:

1) Charge person 10's credit card for the outstanding balance, or

2) Send a detailed bill to the person 10 via email to explain the outstanding balance and allow person 10 to click on a ‘Pay Now’ button to have the outstanding amount charged to their existing credit card within payment system 400.

If payment system 400′ is successful in collecting the outstanding charges, the services within the HIPAA 837 transaction are deemed to be paid. If the charges are declined by the credit card issuing bank then the services are deemed to be denied as if the patient is ineligible. If the person 10 does not press the ‘Pay Now’ button then the services are deemed to be denied as the charges could not be authorized for collection. In response to the services being denied, the medical office may bill person 10 for a non-discounted amount corresponding to the denied service as defined in the 835 response.

Responsive to receiving message 1085, payment system 400′ constructs and sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 2140) based on the message received from credit card company 28 (message 1085).

In other words, responsive to receive message 1075, payment system 400′ checks the information in message 1075 against unpaid appointments within payment system 400′. If a match is found in that the 837 transaction states that payment system 400′ is the payer associated with the transaction, that the provider who rendered the services is the provider for the appointment, and the subscriber and patient in the transaction are the account holder and patient in payment system 400′, then the HIPAA 837 transaction and the appointment are deemed to have been matched.

Once the 837 transaction is matched with an appointment record, payment system 400′ searches for services in the 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record. Two services correspond if they have the same service code. Alternatively, two services correspond if they are sufficiently similar.

If system 400′ finds a service in the 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, and payment was collected from the person 12, then the service is deemed to be paid at a discounted fee set up by medical office 301′ in the payment system 400′. If system 400′ finds a service in the 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, and payment was not collected from the person 12, and the charges were declined by person 12's credit card issuing bank, then the service is deemed to be denied as if person 12 was not eligible at the time of service and the patient responsibly is set to a non-discounted fee set up in payment system 400′.

If system 400′ does not find a service in the 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, then the service is deemed to be denied as an invalid service in the transaction and the entire billed amount is rejected.

If the service is deemed to be paid, then the transaction fee related to using the payment system 400′ is set as an adjustment to the collected funds.

As shown by process 425, payment system 400′ processes all the 837 transactions for a specific medical office in a process known as settlement. During settlement the payment system 400′ determines if the transactions have been matched and payment status determined, it will also determine whether enough time has passed for the payments collected to have been deposited into the payment collection vendors merchant account. If these conditions are met for an 837 transaction payment system 400′ aggregates all the payments for the medical office since the last settlement cycle and constructs an 835 transaction to send to the medical office PMS. The 835 is then submitted to medical office 301′ either directly or via a clearing house (message 2140), and either a check or an EFT payment is provided to medical office 301′ as payment for the services included in the 835. If the PMS of medical office 301′ is able to process electronic 835 transactions automatically, the PMS will accept the 835 transaction from the payment system 400′ and auto-post it into the patient's account. If the PMS is unable to automatically post the 835 then the staff of medical office 301′ will manually post the transactions just as they do for the 835 transactions from other payers.

If all payments were collected from the patient then the patient's account will have a zero balance within the medical office PMS and the account will be deemed settled by the medical office. If payment system 400′ was unable to collect part or all of the patient's balance then the medical office PMS will show an outstanding balance and the medical office will process the balance using their standard processes for patient collections.

In another exemplary scenario, a person 14 has accounts with credit card company 28, insurance company 21, insurance company 25, payment system 400′, and medical office 301′.

FIG. 38 shows payment system 400′ in more detail. CPU 462 executes program 414′ (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 415′ (FIG. 33). CPU 462 executes program 409′ (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 410′ (FIG. 33). CPU 462 executes program 424 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 425 (FIG. 33).

FIG. 39 shows a process wherein insured person 14 requests an appointment with medical office 301′. Responsive to the request from person 14, staff in medical office 301′ invokes computer program 317 (FIG. 24) to send a message 2075 to payment system 400′. Payment system 400′ processes message 2075, as described in connection with the scenario for person 12 above.

Person 14 visits medical office 301′ for the scheduled appointment, and receives a medical service. (appointment 2100).

Once the appointment is complete, staff of medical office 301′ invokes a program to send a message to payment system 400′. (message 2105). In response to receiving message 2105, payment system 400′ may capture the amount pre-authorized in message 2080 from the credit card provided by the patient. (messages 2110 and 2115).

Medical office 301′ eventually sends a HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1075) to insurance company 21. Subsequently, after insurance company 21 determines the payment obligation of insurance company 21, insurance company 21 sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060) to medical office 301′.

Responsive to receiving message 1060, medical office 301′ invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to insurance company 25 (message 1065) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060).

Subsequently, after insurance company 25 determines the payment obligation of insurance company 25, insurance company 25 sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070) to medical office 301′.

Responsive to receiving message 1070, medical office 301′ invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400′ (message 1072) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070).

Responsive to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1075), payment system 400′ sends a charge request (message 1080) to credit card company 28, if necessary, after deducting the amount collected at time of service. Credit card company 28 determines whether to accept the charge and sends the result of the determination (message 1085) to payment system 400′.

Responsive to receiving message 1085, payment system 400′ constructs and sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 2140) based on the message received from credit card company 28 (message 1085).

If payment system 400′ has over collected from the patient at time of service then any overpayments will be refunded and the paid to provider amounts adjusted as appropriate.

Fourth Exemplary System

In the fourth exemplary system, competition is generated at the medical service level. An insurer (an insurance company or an employer or government health plan) agrees to create a new insurance policy for its members, policy 10, and determines the premium for that policy based on standard actuarial methods. Instead of contracting with providers individually, the insurance plan simply determines the allowed amount they are willing to pay for each medical service and enter this into payment system 400″. When a patient that has contracted for policy 10 is determining a provider to seek medical care from they would look up the provider in payment system 400″. Payment system 400″ would display the provider's cost for a service, and the insurance policy's allowed amount for the service, and therefore the amount that the patient responsibility would be (provider's stated charge minus the policy allowed amount). In some cases this amount may be significant, whereas for other providers the amount may be zero as the allowed amount covers the entire charge. This variation in patient responsibility will ensure that the patient tries to optimize what they consider cost effective, quality care to minimize their share of the cost. The provider will be forced to charge market rates in order to attract patients away from their competitors, and the insurance plan sponsors will be forced to optimize their allowed amounts for services to balance what a patient would pay in premiums versus out of pocket costs. Like existing products, the maximum out of pocket amount paid by the patient could be limited if necessary, although, given that the plan has less control over patient out of pocket costs it is likely that this deductible amount will have to be significantly high to deter patients from seeking more expensive care in order to get ‘in benefits’ quickly. The resulting set of market forces would control the cost of medical services as well as utilization of those services.

When the medical office sends the HIPAA 837 message to payment system 400″, payment system 400″ adjudicates the insured portion of the claim by comparing the charged amount to the allowed amount under the patient's policy, once determined though, payment system 400″ will charge the patient's credit card for any positive difference between the charged amount and the allowed amount. As such, the single HIPAA 837 message is used to determine and pay both the insured portion and the patient responsibility portion and both payments will be detailed in the returned HIPAA 835 message.

In prior art insurance products the allowed amount is negotiated individually with each provider, although the insurance company is likely to have a base allowed amount that they attempt to push onto smaller providers. This negotiated amount can be anything but is typically linked to the medicare fee schedule, or some other published fee schedule in order to create ‘indexed’ amounts that adjust annually without have to renegotiate the contract. In contrast, in payment system 400″, the plan owners are provided the option of setting a single allowed amount for all providers, setting allowed amounts based on geographical location or linked to some other fee schedule such as Medicare, or going down to the individual provider level to set this pricing. The individual level is opens up a new source of competitive advantage for the plan owner in that they can increase the allowed amount for providers they consider to be high quality and cost effective and reduce the allowed amount for providers they consider to be low quality or not cost effective. By increasing the allowed amount the patient will experience less patient responsibility and therefore be ‘steered’ to the higher quality providers. This individual knowledge of the providers will become a competitive advantage for the plan owners in creating cost effective plan options.

In summary, in payment system 400″, the provider sets their own fee schedule and the plan owner sets their own allowed amounts.

Payment system 400″ presents the price as the provider's billed amount, then their insurance plan's allowed amount for the provider and service, and therefore the outstanding amount owed by the patient.

Payment system 400″ collects both the insured portion and the patient portion of the payment based on a single HIPAA 837 claim and then applies both payments within the HIPAA 835 transaction.

Throughout this patent application, certain processing may be depicted in real-time, batch, serial, parallel, or other fashion, for ease of description. Actual hardware and software realizations, however, may be varied depending on desired optimizations apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

In this patent application, the word circuitry encompasses dedicated database hardware, and/or programmable hardware, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or reconfigurable logic array, in combination with programming data, such as sequentially fetched CPU instructions or programming data for a reconfigurable array. Thus, circuitry encompasses, for example, a general-purpose electronic processor programmed with software, acting to carry out a described function.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific examples. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not critical, required, or essential feature or element of any of the claims.

Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described.

For example, although the examples show a person relying on a particular number of insurers, the number of insurers is variable. A person may rely on 0 insurers, 1 insurer, 2 insurers, etc.

For example, the person that pays for the health care services, or health care insurance, need not be the person that receives the health care services.

Although a payment mechanism has been described as being a credit card account, alternatives such as a debit card account, a gift card account, another type of account processed over a card-processing network, or other types of accounts may be employed.

For example, the order of messages and distribution of information among the messages may vary. Although message 1045, informing the medical office of the set of payers, has been depicted as sent before the visit for medical services, the subscriber could inform the medical office of a payer, or set of payers, during the visit to the medical office, or after.

Instead of a subscriber informing the medical office of the complete set of payers in one message, such as message 1045, the subscriber may inform the medical office of a primary insurer on one day, and another entity payment on another day.

For example, although computer processing has been shown as being performed in the medical offices, a medical office could be equipped merely with a thin client and the bulk of the computer processing could be performed, under direction of medical office, by another entity, geographically distant from the medical office.

Although in the exemplary systems described above the payment system and the insurance companies are non-affiliated, the payment system and the insurance companies could be affiliated.

Although, in the exemplary systems described above, message fields are located using textual tags within a message, fields could be located using an offset stored in a message, or using an offset stored external to the message.

Thus, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or the scope of Applicants' general inventive concept. The invention is defined in the following claims. In general, the words “first,” “second,” etc., employed in the claims do not necessarily denote an order. 

1. A method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity effectively sends a payment request message to an insurance company, the payment request message being in a payment request format; receives a remittance advice message from the insurance company, the remittance advice message being in a remittance advice format; and a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the payment request format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the remittance advice format, such that a content of the message in the remittance advice format depends on an insurance contract and a payment contract with the first entity, wherein the method comprises the steps of: electronically receiving a payment request message from the medical office, the payment request message being in a payment request format; responsive to the message received in the receiving step, electronically constructing a remittance advice message in the remittance advice format, such that a content of the message in the remittance advice format depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after a medical service is performed; and electronically sending the remittance advice message to the medical office, to cause a computerized payment system of the medical office to behave as if the message came from an insurance company.
 2. A method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient; a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract; wherein the method comprises the steps of: electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, electronically constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.
 3. The method of claim 2 further including receiving a number of the payment card account, at a time before the medical service is performed.
 4. The method of claim 2 further including charging the payment card account responsive to the step of receiving the message in the second format.
 5. The method of claim 2 further including charging the payment card account before the step of receiving the message in the second format.
 6. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of receiving a number of a payment card account includes receiving the number via a path that excludes a building where the service is performed.
 7. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of receiving a number of a payment card account includes receiving the number via a path that includes a building where the service is performed.
 8. The method of claim 2 wherein the first format field is locatable by way of a tag within the message.
 9. The method of claim 2 wherein the receiving step receives a message sent responsive to the second circuitry making a determination to send the message.
 10. The method of claim 2 wherein the constructing step includes adjudicating an insured portion of a claim by comparing a charged or billed amount to an allowed amount under a patient's insurance policy; charging the payment card account for any positive difference between the charged amount and the allowed amount; and constructing the message such that a content a second field of the message in the first format depends on the allowed amount.
 11. A system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient; and a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract, the system comprising: circuitry configured to electronically receive a message, from the first entity, in the second format and, responsive to the received message, electronically construct a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.
 12. The system of claim 11 further including circuitry that receives a number of the payment card account, at a time before the medical service is performed.
 13. The system of claim 11 further including circuitry that charges the payment card account responsive to the message received in the second format.
 14. The system of claim 11 further including circuitry that charges the payment card account before receiving the message in the second format.
 15. The system of claim 12 further including a path, excluding a building where the service is performed, on which the number of a payment card account is received.
 16. The system of claim 12 further including a path, including a building where the service is performed, on which the number of a payment card account is received.
 17. The system of claim 11 wherein the first format field is locatable by way of a tag within the message.
 18. The system of claim 11 wherein the circuitry includes circuitry that adjudicates an insured portion of a claim by comparing a charged or billed amount to an allowed amount under a patient's insurance policy; charges the payment card account for any positive difference between the charged amount and the allowed amount; and constructs the message such that a content a second field of the message in the first format depends on the allowed amount.
 19. A system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first format, the message including a first field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second format, depending on a content of the first field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second format including a code identifying a medical service for a patient; and a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and responsive to the message received in the receiving step, constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on an insurance contract, the system comprising: means for electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second format; and means, responsive to the message received by the receiving means, for electronically constructing a message in the first format, such that a content of the first field depends on whether a payment card account is chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed.
 20. The system of claim 19 further including means for receiving a number of the payment card account, at a time before the medical service is performed.
 21. The system of claim 19 further including means for charging the payment card account responsive to the message received in the second format.
 22. The system of claim 19 further including means for charging the payment card account before receiving the message in the second format.
 23. The system of claim 20 further including a path, excluding a building where the service is performed, on which the number of a payment card account is received.
 24. The system of claim 20 further including a path, including a building where the service is performed, on which the number of a payment card account is received.
 25. The system of claim 19 wherein the first format field is locatable by way of a tag within the message.
 26. The system of claim 19 wherein the constructing means includes means for adjudicating an insured portion of a claim by comparing a charged or billed amount to an allowed amount under a patient's insurance policy; means for charging the payment card account for any positive difference between the charged amount and the allowed amount; and means for constructing the message such that a content a second field of the message in the first format depends on the allowed amount.
 27. A method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing medical services, wherein the first entity controlling execution of a first computer instruction, the first computer acting to send a message to the second entity, the message including a code identifying a medical service for a patient, and a second computer instruction, the second computer instruction acting to receive a message in reply to the message sent by the first computer instruction, a second entity, the second entity providing insurance services, wherein the method comprises the steps of: receiving a first message from the first computer instruction; responsive to the receiving step, sending a second message to the second computer instruction, the second message including the code identifying the medical service for the patient. 